From its 1970 birth via Black Sabbath, heavy metal has mutated and adapted to an ever-evolving communications landscape.

Through the decades, that’s meant going from radio and vinyl records to MTV and CDs, and bringing the hard and heavy to the Internet age from the days of AOL chat rooms to our present existences of hyperactive, 24-7, YouTube and social media connectivity.

Reality television programming is another mass audience trend-turned-cornerstone to which heavy metal has proven to be an unlikely prolific and profitable bedfellow.